Oil Services Giant Reveals 10,000 Job Cuts

Oilfield services giant Schlumberger (LSE: 0CT7.L - news) slashed 10,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of last year as tumbling energy prices took their toll.

The firm disclosed the scale of the cuts as it posted a quarterly loss of $1.02bn (£710m) after taking a $530m (£370m) restructuring charge as well as a $1.6bn (£1.1bn) hit covering write-downs in the value of assets and site closures.

Oil prices have slumped dramatically from a peak of above $115 for a barrel of Brent crude in the summer of 2014 to less than $28 earlier this week – at levels not seen since November 2003.

The slump has battered energy giants such as BP and Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: R6C1.DE - news) as well as companies providing services for the industry.

Schlumberger, which has its main offices in Paris, Houston, London and The Hague had announced 20,000 job cuts earlier in 2015. It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) currently employs around 105,000 people.

Chief executive Paul Kibsgaard said: "In anticipation of an extended activity weakness in the first half of 2016, we implemented another significant adjustment to our cost and resource base during the fourth quarter.

"This included a further workforce reduction of 10,000 employees, as well as greater streamlining of our overhead, infrastructure and asset base."

The results did not spell out where in its global operations the jobs had been lost or what impact there might have been on the UK, where the company employs around 1,900 people.

Last week, BP said it was axing 600 jobs from its North Sea operations, a fifth of its workforce in the region, as part of worldwide cuts of 4,000 posts (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .